How to say ‘thank you’

11. Feb, 2008 4 Comments

We live in a world where most of us say ‘thank you’ using an email with a single word: ‘thanks’. I’m as guilty of this as the next guy. Yesterday I was reminded of the kind of world that we could live in.

When I got back to my office after a day’s worth of meetings in different places, I found a package on my desk. It was postmarked from London, Ontario, Canada. I looked at the name – it didn’t jump out at me. It was a fairly big, and moderately heavy package. I first thought hmmm … I’m not the kind of guy that a Unabomber-esque person would want to take out, right?

A quick search via Google jogged my memory. The sender was Edward Ocampo-Gooding, one of the organizers of this year’s CUSEC conference. I had met him at RubyConf, and he had sent me a mail out of the blue a few months ago asking for an introduction to Jon Udell. It took me maybe 30 seconds to fire off the email that introduced them to each other and I promptly forgot about it.

Once I had confidence that the package wouldn’t blow up when I opened it, I looked inside. I found a small gift and a hand-written letter:

Letter from Edward Ocampo-Gooding

There was a link in the letter. When I clicked on the link, this is what I saw:

This was a really thoughtful and touching way to say thank-you. It says a lot about the character of this young man, and a reminder to the rest of us about how to treat others who help you out. I guess the way I’m thanking him is through this blog post :)

BTW, I heard awesome things about the CUSEC conference this year from folks that I know personally: Jeff Atwood, Zed Shaw, and Jon all wrote glowingly of their experiences.

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Just the other day I was watching Randy Pausch’s ‘Other Lecture’ on Time Management. Randy talks about the stack of blank thank-you cards that he keeps on his desk. He makes a point to hand-write thank-you notes to people who have helped him out. Not quite what Ed did for me, but an important thing to do nonetheless.

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4 Responses to “How to say ‘thank you’”

  1. Charles 11. Feb, 2008 at 11:50 am

    Good Karma

  2. Skrud 11. Feb, 2008 at 2:02 pm

    Ed is by far one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, and also one of the best friends I’ve ever had.

  3. mb 09. Mar, 2008 at 7:22 pm

    The gift didn’t get dented, did it? I was worried it would be dented. P.S. if you need to the official Gooding Pancake recipe… just send Edward an email, and he’ll hook you up.

  4. John Lam 10. Mar, 2008 at 6:07 am

    @mb: It arrived safe & sound, thanks!
    Recipe sounds yummy …